Plotting Services

WAI Engineering offers an engineering plotting service using a Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 350C inkjet plotter which can plot drawings from ISO A4 through to ISO A0.  The plotter can accept a number of data formats including HP-GL, and HP-GL/2.  If requesting plots from plot data provided, it is preferred that this information in prepared using HP-GL/2 drivers.  HP-GL/2 plot files can include pen width information, and so the person preparing the plot data has full control over how the plot will be generated.  Some older software can only generate data using HP-GL drivers, and when plots are generated in this format, the pen width to colour mapping must also be provided.

It is important that drawings are done with regard to pen widths and colours to be used for the final plots.  WAI Engineering can assist you in this, however many problems can be overcome if this is considered when setting up drawing office standards.  If you are unsure as to what pens should be used, or what pens should be used for a particular character height, refer to your national drawing standards, or discuss this with WAI Engineering.

Another area that causes problems is drawing border margins.  Standards set minimum distances from the outer edge of the sheet to the inner border of the drawing frame and not the dimensions of the inner drawing frame as many believe.  This margin sizes should not be less that that nominated in the standard, otherwise it becomes expensive to plot on oversize sheet and then trim back, and drawings can not claim to follow the nominated standard.  The plotter used by WAI Engineering has the narrowest non-printing margins of the plotters on the market, so as long as standards are followed, there should be no problems in achieving the standard margins.  Plotting the outer edge of the sheet of paper, or specifying the plot area that is the sheet size will mean that oversize sheet will have to be used at additional cost.   The following plot areas are suitable for the DesignJet 350C using cut sheet, and include a standard cutting tolerance.

Plot data can be provided on 3.5" floppy disk, 100 MB Zip disks, CD, or via e-mail by attaching them to a message.  Finished plots can be collected, or they can be returned by courier.

Contact WAI Engineering to discuss your plotting requirements and for the latest price list.

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